Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Transwales - Day 7

At last it was the final day, the legs seemed fine and everyone was in a good mood. So they set us off on the longest day, 84km with 2500m of climbing, by sending us up an off-road climb! I was riding with Fay and Darryl again and we had fun spinning uphills and ploughing through sereral stream crossings - they had called them water splashes but I assume that was before it started raining and never stopped. The first water stop was very welcome after 24 hard km all off-road. At this point the cut-off of 4pm was looking unlikely and they had told us not to rush! After that we headed into more forest and then down some purpose built singletrack where ali was waiting to get picutes of us. Straight after that it was the very welcome lunch stop. It had took us over three and a half hours to get here so there was some hope it might be getting easier! We set off on the road but it was soon back into the forest with some long fireroad climbs, fortunately my legs seemed happy enough to climb still - Ali's massage still working wonders! Before dropping out of more singletrack to another waterstop. Just before this one was Ali again to get a few more shots of us.

Here Ali had left me a bottle of vimto energy drink and some jaffa cakes which was a nice suprise and then the woman there told us it was about 20miles mainly on road. At this point we thought we might make the cut-off. So we headed a long the road only to turn left and onto a cliff, well not quite it was walkable but it had everyone walking at some point. This seemed to continue on the way back, some road, a bit of an off-road climb etc. Till we were on road following the signs for Builth Wells and coasting up the uphills with our speed from descents, well at least halfway up them!

Once we got back (well within the cut-off) there was beer waiting for us, probably the slowest I have ever drank a beer! The three of us posed for a picture, we had all survived the week. I rode it all, Joe missed the optional section on day 3 and Ollie missed the last special stage and most of day 4. But we were all smiling at the end.

After some chatting I wandered to the car, got clean clothes and had a shower it was nearly half five, so Ali asked about prize giving. They said 6pm so there was no time to grab food. It was nearly 7pm when they did it, apparently the top guys had gone for curry - thanks the rest of us would have been eating too if we hadn't been told 6pm. Anyway I was 3rd overall, won my first ever cash prize! After that we headed home, getting home at about 11pm, where I just climbed into bed, exhausted.

The week was brilliant, although the organisation could have been better I was lucky that I never saw the worst of it as Ali got that. I'd recommend it to anyone but it is easier if you have some support. For me having sandwiches I liked every day was a major plus, as oppose to playing guess what is on the roll. I'm sure next time I do it the weather can't be too bad! Oh and maybe there will be hot showers ;)

84km @ 13.0km/h Av HR 134bpm

I would love to hear from some of the people I met, on the last evening we were all too shattered. If you leave me a comment with your email I won't publish it on the blog so you don't get a ton of junk mail ;)

No idea about the next challenge yet. Will definetly do some more events next year though. I'd recommend the race Kate, it was great fun and the athmosphere was great. I'll definetly do it again some time.

Well done Trio!! we've been following your preparations and are really impressed at your TransWales result - were you expecting podium? We've just entered BC Bike Race next June, so definitely have some training ahead... Whatever challenge you take on next, keep blogging about it!